Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today ordered the army to evacuate more than a million civilians who have taken refuge from the conflict in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, ahead of a ground attack.
The order was preceded by a warning from US officials that Israel had not planned how to protect civilians and that they were therefore at risk of “disaster”. They joined humanitarian officials who earlier also warned of the danger to civilians.
Netanyahu said he had instructed the Israeli army (IDF) and the defense establishment to present to the Israeli government plans to evacuate Palestinian civilians from the southern Gaza Strip and destroy Hamas battalions in the Rafah area.
“It is impossible to achieve the war goal of eliminating Hamas, while leaving four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” Netanyahu’s cabinet said in a statement, adding:
“On the other hand, it is clear that the large-scale operation in Rafah requires the evacuation of the civilian population from the combat zone”.
More than 1.3 million Palestinians are estimated to have taken refuge in the Rafah area as the IDF ordered evacuations from the north and other areas of Gaza ahead of a ground offensive against Hamas, according to Israeli media.
